Legal advisory renewable energies and smartcities

Created: 05 April 2013

Share:

Renewable energies

We are members of APPA(The Spanish Renewable Energies Industry Association), UNEF (Spanish Photovoltaic Industry Union), the Platform for a New Energy Model, Secartys (a Spanish non-profit business group dedicated to the promotion and competitiveness of its members as well as the positioning of the Spanish industry abroad), The Catalan Energy Efficiency Cluster (CEEC), The Catalan Wine Cluster (Innovi), AEDIVE (The SpanishBusiness Association for the Development and Promotion of the Electric Vehicle) as well as the Catalan Biomass Cluster. We show our commitment to these organisations by offering frequent sponsoring, participation of our professionals at their panel discussions and with presentations held at the conferences organized by these associations. Our growth is the result of an approach that combines civil awareness and business competitiveness. We are a Firm which takes a clear position in favour of renewable energies, and we do not defend clients who are incompatible with this stance. The defence of the sector of renewable energies in Spain is a good example of that: we were awarded the Eurosolar Prize in 2015.

At present we defend over 3.500 installations of various renewable technologies, which are owed by thousands of private individuals and hundreds of small, medium-sized and large cap companies, some of which are listed at the IBEX 35. We also represent APPA, AEOLICAN, ACER, Greenpeace, Eurosolar, Solartys, The Catalan Energy Efficiency Cluster (CEEC) or the Platform for a New Energy Model in several litigation procedures at a national or European level. To the latter, we provide our services pro bono. These litigations are a necessary harm to regain legal certainty in Europe, starting in Spain. We do all we can to obtain a favourable decision from the European Court of Justice. Our firm has high media visibility, and we consider it our duty to transmit our educational and nuanced message about the electricity sector to the general public. Our claims and complaints before the European Commission and European Parliament are of special importance and have been subscribed by almost the whole of the Spanish renewable energy sector.

When we talk about transactions, HOLTROP S.L.P Transaction & Business Law has been conceived from its inception as a Firm oriented towards business advisory, with a special focus on international transactions, mainly acquisitions of other businesses and greenfield projects. In the coming years, legal advice for new renewable energy capacity, which will have to be allocated to replace the existing traditional technologies so as to achieve the goals set to avoid climate change, will gain a lot of weight in the distribution of our efforts. Furthermore, it is worth making reference to our participation in different online platforms regarding transactions involving citizens’ participation like Ecrowd, Firmeza Solar, and our legal advice to the Crowdfunding Citizen Energy project of the EU.

Our Firm is very active in litigation for renewables. This circumstance is decisive to our analytical capacity of the regulatory changes, both in the context of Due Diligence reports, and for the negotiation of guarantees. As a necessary aspect of our litigation proceedings against the many cutbacks to the renewable installations we have undertaken Due Diligence on thousands of photovoltaic, Wind, small hydraulics and Cogeneration installations. Currently, not many firms are in this privileged position, we realise by our clients’ feedback, and they can tell from our fee proposals they receive for our services.

Smartcities

We support the global energy model turnaround (Energiewende), focusing our main activity in this regard in the field of renewable energies. However, this energy turnaround goes far beyond electric power, so in the last two years we have been advising in other areas related hereto change of model, such as energy efficiency, sustainable transport, air conditioning etc, all neccesary to develop Smartcities.

Our advice in the field seeks to be comprehensive, accompanying companies and institutions working in the field of Smartcities. Our clients range from start-ups needing support in corporate matters, medium and large companies wanting to deepen their understanding of the regulation, and municipalities and autonomous regions developing measures aimed to support the Energy turnaround, such as district heating or measures to promote electric vehicles.

In the field of energy efficiency there are numerous legal problems that require an analysis combining knowledge of regulation with the economic reality behind it. EPC’s, the transposition of energy efficiency requirements, smart grids or the regulation of electricity self-consumption are some of the key elements in this area. To be in contact with companies in this sector and to gain better understanding of their problems, we are partners of the Energy Efficiency Cluster of Catalonia, where we actively participate in discussions and working groups.

In the case of District Heating & Cooling we advise municipalities on how set up these networks, how to draft the specifications and the various necessary administrative authorizations, with a medium and long term view. As this is heavily regulated in Spain, legal challenges are enormous, making it necessary to look primarily at European law. Also, we are part of the Taskforce of the Smartreflex Project of the “Generalitat de Catalunya” on heating and cooling networks.

Finally, as far as sustainable transport is concerned, we focus our activity on electric vehicles. Unlike what happens with District Heating, where reality is faster than regulation, legislation has been developed for electric vehicles long before these consolidated in the market. An example of this are the legal difficulties in becoming a “charge operator” (gestor de carga), something which does not exist elsewhere outside Spain. And again, our activity in the field of electric vehicles combines legal advice with active participation as members of the Business Association for the Development and Promotion of the Electric Vehicle (AEDIVE) and as members of the Panel of Experts on Electric Mobility of the City Council of Santa Perpetua la Mogoda, in Catalonia.